Mike's Minute: Evidence that those in power, shouldn't be

The Reserve Bank's Governor of Australia Philip Lowe reminded me of Eugenie Sage this week. Or maybe it was the other way round? Either way, it’s about power and influence. The Sage defence of the cluster that has been this astonishing attempt to upend democracy in this country with the entrenchment debacle is all the evidence you need to know that not all people in power, should be. Her rationale and I use that word extremely loosely, was so devoid of any common sense it was frightening. Essentially, it boiled down to 'we don’t like the idea of privatisation so we want to stop it'. All Governments don’t like the idea of a bunch of stuff the next Government might have a crack at. But part of the democratic deal is you have a thing called an election, you state your case and the best person wins. In the meantime, Philip Lowe, who is in about as much reputational trouble as Adrian Orr, apologised. Like Adrian did. He apologised for the fact a lot of people went and borrowed a lot of money when money was cheap and have now been caught out because the Reserve Bank Governor changed his mind about inflation. "I'm sorry if people listened to what we said and acted on it". Those were his exact words - "I am sorry if people listened to what we said and acted on it". Have you ever heard such an abdication of responsibility? As opposed to what Philip? Us listening to what you say and dismissing it? Thus meaning what? That what you have to say means nothing? Hence the next obvious question - why do we have a Governor of the Reserve Bank? What positions do we listen to? What advice do we act on? If we are ignore bank governors, what about hare-brained politicians or indeed Prime Ministers? Just who does, and does not, have any level of tangible responsibility to speak and have their words and intentions followed or acted upon? It's all care, no responsibility. Sage loves sitting in Parliament making all sorts of rules and regulations until its shown she’s a mile out of her depth. Phillip loves running an economy until, ‘whoops I’m not sure I know what I’m doing so just ignore me please.’ The asylum really is run by the inmates.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.